On 18 March 2025, Elizabeth Devine presented a paper on ‘Independent Contractors: Recent Developments in the Law’ to Legalwise Seminars’ Employment Law Symposium in Sydney.  The question of whether a worker is, or should be, categorised as an employee or an independent contractor is a perennial one in Australian employment law.  There are multiple reasons for this, chief of which include the general inflexibility of the law which recognises only two main categories of worker (employee and independent contractor, not a hybrid) and the common assumption among many people in business that a legal relationship is simply a matter of what they choose to label it as.  When there is uncertainty about how long a business might need a particular worker, it often appears simpler to categorise the worker as something other than a permanent employee.  In the same way as people are often first engaged by an entity as a casual employee, so they might otherwise be engaged as a contractor.  While the initial choice might be reasonable at that point in time, the legal risks to the business mount when a ‘set and forget’ approach is adopted.  As in a recent matter Elizabeth advised on, workers might be engaged for 10 years or more before there is a review, if any, of how they have been categorised.  While the law in relation to independent contractors has been relatively stable for the past 20 or so years, in recent years there have been a number of significant developments.  This has included two decisions of the High Court of Australia in February 2022 which (undeservedly) caused some controversy and resulted in the current Australian Government introducing a broad definition of ’employment’ into the Fair Work Act 2009.  The provision containing that definition took effect on 26 August 2024, together with provisions allowing the Fair Work Commission to review ‘unfair contracts’ of independent contractors (where there is no dispute that the worker is an independent contractor), to set minimum standards for ‘regulated workers’ (including those engaged via a digital labour platform, such as a rideshare driver or delivery driver for well-known apps, and road transport drivers) and to determine whether regulated workers have been unfairly deactivated/terminated.  Elizabeth’s paper and presentation explained the historical context of the case law in relation to independent contractors, discussed the recent reforms and case law in detail and explained the consequences of not categorising workers correctly, especially in light of the recent commencement of the wage theft provisions of the Fair Work Act 2009.